One Day
by Hisha P
Summary: "He will come back... one day..." (Prequel fic about the Woodsman's daughter)
1. Chapter 1

**Notes:** Thanks to tumblr user Redbreloom for the idea! :)

Also, as always, the name "Clover" is a fan-nickname and therefore in no way canon.

* * *

One day, father and daughter had an argument. She ran away into the woods in anger, he ran after her to find her before she got lost. She went deeper into the woods, not wanting to be found just yet. Not now, not before she calmed down a bit.

Eventually, she slowed down to catch her breath while walking. While she still could see the sky through the leafless branches above her, the setting sun was no longer visible. Soon, the very first stars of the night would appear.

Though, right after they did, Clover reached a part of the forest which was so dense she could no longer take a step without feeling a low branch or two try to grab her as though they wanted to prevent her from ever leaving. She stopped and pushed away one that was ripping through her clothes and took a good look around her.

The girl could no longer see the path she came from. It was this way, right? All she had to do was going back the way she came and she would be home safe again, away from the forest and right next to a warm fire in the fireplace. She'd apologise to her father and everything would be back to normal.

…Right?

The forest was dead silent and the twisted branches of the trees were still trying to reach her… wait, no, they were just shaking in the cold wind, weren't they? Then why did this simple motion felt so threatening?

And what was that light that just appeared nearby? Was there someone here? Maybe they could light the way for her?

"Hello?" the girl called, advancing towards the light.

She spotted a vague silhouette in the shadows with two bright lights where eyes would be, and a third one, an unusually bright lantern, hanging slightly to the left on what she assumed were branches.

Something was wrong. Something was _very_ wrong. She could feel thousands of souls and yet she couldn't see any other person or creature around beside this one.

Thousands of souls, some screaming, some crying, all of them unable to make a single sound.

The shadows moved, and so did the light, both advancing towards Clover.

The latter screamed in terror and ran as far away from this… this _thing_ as she could, not caring anymore about the branches ripping up her clothes and cutting her face as she fled.

She ran for what felt like an eternity… until, finally, the path got clearer, the trees sparser, the night sky got clearly visible once more and her home appeared at last.

She rushed through the still open door and closed it behind her before allowing herself to catch her breath and then sat on the floor, her back to the wall. Whatever she saw, she had no doubt it was the reason why she'd always been told not to go into the woods alone.

Now her breath was almost back to normal but her heart was still beating insanely fast.

"Father?" she called.

He wasn't home. He must be still looking for her. In the dark woods. With that thing haunting it.

_Oh no._

She had to go back and find him before it was too late!

The girl stood up, walked to the fireplace and grabbed the fire iron before remembering there was a better weapon she could use : the spare axe in the woodshed.

Once she had it in her hands, she went back to the woods right outside her home, holding her weapon firmly in her hands.

"Father!" she called, taking a few steps into the forest.

As she was about to call again, she froze. _It_ was here. But the lantern wasn't for some reason. Just a pair of glowing eyes in the middle of the shadows to her right… and all those souls trapped within the creature those eyes belonged to.

"Entering my forest again, child?" it said in a deep, poised voice while slightly tilting its head to the side. "If you wish to become part of it, just say so."

"What are you? Where's my father?" Clover asked, brandishing her weapon in front of her.

The thing didn't move.

"They call me the Beast" it replied. "I am the master of this forest. As for you… I'm afraid you'll never see your father again."

"What have you done to him?" the girl shouted, swinging the heavy axe at the Beast but missing.

"I haven't done anything to him. But this isn't the right question. The right question is 'what has _he_ done?'"

Clover had heard enough nonsense : she started walking away and into the woods ; however the monster's next words made her stop :

"Are you really ready to risk your own life and soul for a father who has just abandoned you?"

She turned to the Beast again to state :

"He didn't abandon me. Father would never do that. He's looking for me right now!"

"I know everything that happens in my forest, child. And I know he won't return."

"He will! You'll see!"

"Telling yourself that will not make it come true."

Clover already couldn't see much of the Beast before, but now tears were blurring her vision, making it so easy for the monster to evade her attacks as she swung the axe once more.

When her blade got struck into the bark of a tree, the Beast spoke again, still in the same calm tone :

"No need for violence, child. If you don't believe me, why don't you wait for him?"

Clover waited all night and day. Neither her father nor the Beast showed up.

For the first time, she was truly alone.

Maybe her father lost his way at some point? No, he knew this part of the woods better than her : if she could find her way back, so could he. Then where was he? He couldn't have just left her! He could never do such a thing!

…Could he?

He probably just went a bit too far into the forest and therefore was taking longer to come back. That or the Beast did something… and in that case, she would make it… or him? She would make him pay for whatever he did.

The sun was setting once more and the air got too cold for the girl to be sitting outside any longer, so she decided to continue waiting inside. She lit a fire in the fireplace and carefully listened for any sound that might come from outside, however all she could hear was the crackling sounds the flames made as they licked the firewood. She held her hands in front of the fire until she could feel her fingers again.

Was her father out there in the cold? Did he find refuge? Did that monster took him away? He claimed he didn't do anything, but could she trust the words of a creature who stole so many souls? 'Cause he must have stolen them, having that many within one body simply couldn't occur naturally. She couldn't even tell which soul was his own!

Wait a minute. Could he have stolen her father's too? Lost among so many others, it might have been almost impossible to find it right away.

If the Beast showed up again, she would pay closer attention. Then make him give back what he stole.


	2. Chapter 2

A whole, lonely week passed without anything happening. Then, as Clover was about to get ready for bed, she heard a voice in the distance outside the cabin she lived in. Despite the wooden walls that separated them, she could hear this voice quite clearly as it sang almost joyfully :

"_Lalala, lalala, chop the wood to light the fire!_"

The girl immediately rushed to the door to see who was outside…

Of course. It was that Beast again, standing in the darkness outside her home, near her front porch.

"I told you he wouldn't come back", he said instead of a hello.

"He… he will come back… _one day_…" Clover whispered, trying to focus on finding her father's soul among all those imprisoned within the creature's body. Surely she could find it ; she knew it so well…

"Stay in denial if you wish", the Beast said, turning around to leave.

"Wait!" the girl stopped him. "I need to see if -"

"See what?" he interrupted her, looking at her over his shoulder. "That I came back to you while your father didn't?"

"…You never took his soul, did you? It's not here with the others..."

The monster fully turned to Clover again and tilted his head to the side.

"I told you I didn't do anything to him, didn't I?"

If this monster didn't take her father's soul, then… what happened? Was the Beast right all along?

Before she could ask him any more questions, he left her field of vision, singing all the way and his voice filling the entire forest.

Food supplies were getting low and Clover's vegetable garden wasn't doing very well in the cold soil. However, she remembered how her father would create traps for small woodland animals. If her own garden couldn't provide enough for her, she would take what she needed in the forest.

She could make a few snares and place them in different spots in the woods nearby. This should be more than enough to feed her. And if her father came back, they'd just set more traps to get more food.

Though, as the girl set out into the cold morning air, the Beast's words echoed into her head.

_You'll never see your father again_, he said. And he sounded so certain of it.

She warily entered the forest and looked for the perfect spots to place her snares. The tip of her nose already felt like it had been replaced by a shard of ice but she ignored it. She had more important things to think about, such as not starving.

Clover slowly advanced into the woods, careful not to make any sound that could scare the animals away. As she put the first trap into place, she couldn't help but wonder : did her father abandon her like the Beast said? Each passing day made it more and more believable.

As she walked away to find another place to set the second trap, she kept looking over her shoulder, half-expecting to spot the monster lurking in the shadows. However, it seemed he wasn't there today either. She hadn't seen him since the second time he talked to her.

Worst of all, she hadn't heard the voice of another _human_ being since… since that one day.

She set up the second trap with trembling hands. Each one of her breaths turned to steam in the air.

It felt so strange, having to do all of this alone. Ever since they arrived in this place, she thought her father and herself would stick together to survive…

Once all the traps were set, Clover went back home and lit a fire. At least there was still enough firewood for a few months.

Even though the girl still had plenty of firewood, she figured it would be a good idea to train herself to chop down trees. This should keep her busy enough not to think too much about her situation. Being alone with her thoughts was the last thing she wanted at the moment but no-one else was around…

She went to the edge of the forest but did not step in it. She chose a young tree that looked easy to cut down and swung her axe as she had seen her father do so many times.

_Her father who had_-

No, she couldn't allow herself to think about it. She had to focus on the task at hand. Clover swung the axe a couple more times, doing her best to make each strike more precise and more powerful than the last.

Then, she heard the Beast's voice singing the same tune than before ; only it felt more appropriate now. Once he got close enough, she could feel his presence. After taking a look at the forest before her, she finally saw him, a pair of glowing eyes in the darkness behind the trees.

"Hello, Beast", she said, lowering down her axe for a moment.

Any company was welcome, even his.

"Good evening, child", he replied.

"My name's not 'child', it's Clover. What are you doing here?"

"This is _my_ forest, Clover. I've been in it since long before you arrived. _I_ should be asking _you_ what you are doing here."

"…Fair enough", the girl shrugged before resuming what she was previously doing.

She was getting the hang of this. Soon, the thin tree trunk fell to the side, only slowed down by its neighbours. She felt quite proud of herself in that moment. That is, until the Beast spoke again.

"Like father, like daughter", he commented.

"Can we… not talk about him for now?" she asked. "Why don't you help me transport this home instead?"

"If you are to live alone here forever, you should get used to do all your tasks alone. And I'm not your servant."

Clover sighed and started cutting off the branches of the fallen tree and assembling them in one pile.

Being in the Beast's vicinity felt like having a crowd watching her and yet all she could see was him standing there, half-hidden in his forest.

"So, which one is yours?" she asked, her arms full of the branches she just collected.

"What are you talking about?" he asked back, tilting his head to the side quizzically.

Clover wondered if he ever got these impressive antlers stuck on things in the forest.

"You've got all those souls, but which one is really yours?"

"You should not meddle in things you cannot understand, Clover", the Beast stated.

"If you won't help me or answer my questions, why did you even bother c-"

"I only wish to make sure you are still alive. If my presence in _my own woods_ bothers you…I can leave you to your thoughts. Alone."

And with that, he disappeared ; the girl dropped all the branches she was holding and shouted in direction of the forest :

"Wait! I- I didn't mean to -"

His voice, seemingly coming from nowhere in particular, interrupted her :

"By the way, one of your traps caught an animal. You should check it out before another creature eats it."


	3. Chapter 3

It had been exactly one year since Clover's father vanished and she still didn't understand. Why did he do this? Him of all people?

The only one who actually visited her a few times was the Beast and he wasn't very helpful for anything but making her feel less lonely for a short while.

As the sun went down, she sat on the low wall outside her home and stared blankly at the dark forest. Why had her father left her without warning? Wasn't she good enough? Didn't he care for her like she thought he did?

The air was cold but the wind was nonexistent. Soon, the girl felt warm tears run down her face. She tried to ignore them at first, but as they blinded her vision she finally attempted to wipe them away with the back of her hands. They kept coming anyway.

This instant, she would have given anything to see her father again ; however she wasn't sure whether it would be to embrace him or slap him in the face.

"Why?" she asked aloud, trying for the third time to dry her tears. "Why? Why did you… abandon me?"

Only now did Clover start sobbing loudly, her face in her hands. And then she heard a familiar voice singing. Oh, not now, she didn't want to be seen like this!

She turned around to face her home but, before she could stand up and walk away, the Beast was already close enough for her to feel his presence.

"It's been a year, hasn't it?" he said.

She only emitted a vague, meaningless sound instead of an answer.

"You used to say he would come back one day", he continued "I guess you were mistaken."

_Are you here just to say that you told me so? _the girl thought to herself but didn't say aloud in fear that the creature of darkness could hear in her voice that she was crying.

"Have you lost your tongue, Clover?"

The girl couldn't hold back her sobs anymore : in the span of three seconds she went from weeping silently to crying even louder than before. Being discreet definitely was no longer an option.

"I-I don't… e-e-even remember… what we were arguing about… before he left…" she told the Beast in-between sobs.

"Are you saying he abandoned you because of some meaningless argument not even worth remembering?" he asked.

"…You're not helping", she replied before sniffing loudly.

"I still helped you more over the course of this year than your father did", the creature argued, placing his hand on Clover's shoulder.

She froze. It was the first time he ever touched her. Usually he stood at a respectable distance, always hidden in the shadows where his glowing eyes were the only source of light.

As the girl was drying her tears on her own shawl, she realised something she hadn't thought of before.

Ever since she met the Beast, she had been wondering which one of the many souls trapped inside of him was actually his. And every time she saw him, she managed to perceive them more accurately. She could even tell whether a new one had just joined the others, and yet still had no clue which was the one he was born with. Now, the answer seemed so obvious Clover mentally slapped herself.

The answer was "none of them". As absurd as it seemed, he didn't have a soul of his own. Which made her very uneasy.

She quickly stood up to escape the grasp of the monster's long fingers, mumbled some excuse about having to go to sleep and then rushed to the safety of her little house. Once inside with the door locked, the girl went straight to bed.

The Beast's aura of mystery definitely wasn't going to disappear any time soon. What to make of a creature which had so many souls and yet was soulless?

Several more years passed. Any hope of seeing her father again had died down long ago. However, the Beast still visited sometimes. Clover hadn't seen him in a while though.

It was with steady hands that she chopped up large pieces of woods into ones that would fit in the fireplace. It was now without even thinking that she carried the heavy logs to the woodshed and put them down with the others. She wiped her hands on her skirt. The woodshed was now full.

She went back to where she had left her axe then brought it back where it belonged. Now, what to do? She had already taken care of her food supplies for the next few days, gone for water at the well, cleaned everything in house and read every book the previous owner had left multiple times.

Sometimes she wondered why she even bothered with all of this.

Clover sat in front of the unlit fireplace and sighed.

"I don't even know what the point is anymore", she said aloud. "I can work as hard as I want, I'm still an abandoned child whose only contact is a soulless Beast that steals other people's souls."

She grabbed the fire iron and pointlessly drew messy lines into the ashes of the previous fire. She could prepare a new one, maybe. She didn't really feel like doing anything anymore.

The girl let what she was holding fall on the floor. She wasn't waiting for anything or anyone anymore and no-one would miss her if she left ; so why was she still here? Surely this cabin in the woods could be much more useful to someone who actually still had a purpose.

"He said the souls who get lost in his forest become part of it. I wonder what he means by that. He wasn't very clear about it. But I wonder… can the forest be lonely?"

It probably couldn't.

She stood up and went back outside into the bitter cold to find out it had just started snowing. She used to love playing in the snow before she arrived in the Unknown with her father ; nowadays even the sweet memories of snowmen building weren't enough to make her smile.

By the time she entered the woods surrounding her home, the girl's nose, hands and toes already felt like ice and her hair was covered in snowflakes.

"Beast?" she called.

The sun was setting : if he were to appear at all today, it would probably be soon. She went deeper into the woods, listening for every sound, looking for shadowy figures behind every tree. She kept calling to him as the snow on the ground made her shoes wet and feet numb. She didn't care much about the inconvenience though. In fact, she didn't care about anything anymore. She had had enough of being alone and there was only one being she knew could do something about it.

Clover kept walking until the snowflakes stopped falling. Her entire body was numb. And he was still nowhere to be seen. He always visited her on random nights without warning her beforehand, but the _one_ time she actually was looking for him…

She fell to her knees in the middle of the snow-covered path she was walking on, tired in every definition of the term.

"Beast? I- I give up. I don't care anymore. Jut… Just take me already. Make it all stop ; I don't give a damn how. Please…"

The only reply she got was silence disturbed solely by her own breathing. The girl closed her eyes and waited for what felt like forever. Why wouldn't he come for her?

"Pff. Of course the one time I actually need you, you abandon me too… I should have known. No-one wants to stay with me…"

She sighed and opened her eyes again. Maybe she could just wait for the Beast at home. He would come back one day. And this time, she'd ask him face to face, so to speak.

She stood back up and followed the direction she came from, hugging herself all the while in a vain attempt at keeping warm. By the time she reached the edge of the forest again, snowflakes were falling once more, making her footprints disappear as she walked to the cabin, entered it, closed the door behind her, lit up a candle and shook off the snow from her hair and clothes.

Then, she heard a noise right outside the house. The sound of footsteps on the porch. This couldn't be the Beast : he always moved silently no matter what and never ever went under the porch anyway. Then who was out there?

She went to check the porch, the candle in her hand.

She couldn't believe what she was seeing. It couldn't be real, and yet both her eyes and her sixth sense were telling her it was.

"Father?" she asked, just to make sure she wasn't just imagining things.

He stood up and gasped, his eyes wide : he was just as surprised to see her, if not more, than she was to see him.

Clover, who was now smiling for the first time in forever, and her father simply stood there looking at each other with tears in their eyes for a long time, not daring to move or look away in fear that the other might disappear into thin air.

Finally, she walked up to him, grabbed his hand, lead him inside the cabin, set the candle down on the table, closed the door and hugged her father tightly.

"I…I thought the Beast had taken you away" he said.

She moved her face away from his chest and looked up at him. He knew the Beast?

"And he told me you… abandoned me…"

"No! I did not! I would never… He tricked me. He was a filthy liar."

"Was?" the girl repeated.

She let go of her father for one second before grabbing his hand again and leading him to the chair near the fireplace and asking him to tell her everything so she could hear his side of the story at last.

Years ago, she used to think her father would come back one day. Now she wasn't alone anymore because that one day had finally come.


End file.
